Damn. They did it to me again., Just when you think they've stopped. Options

[CoalHeart]

Well remember me asking a few days ago about the estimated prices on Metahumans? Well just now over the week I found out the real reasons why my group of runners has been all gungho about it. They kept it a secret from me until last moment. (rather smart of them to do to keep me from killing off the plan in the begining)


Well anyways here goes.



They combined cash and purchased about 14 male orks for the reasonable price of 14,000 yen each, and 6 female elves at 25,000 yen each. All had randomly rolled stats. Then purchased for each one of them a deticated chipjack and each one some cyberware. Spurs, smartlinks. Guns ammo and armor. The main purchase and most troublesome one was that they purchased rating 10 persona fix chips. Basically total loyalty and a relatively docile personality . Slotted them into thier new pets and now have a relatively cheep and fairly effective gang.

(Orks with smartlinks and spurs and fed steroids daily also then given virtual instructors to learn some weapons. The elves were given instructions on stealth and assassin's weapon training.)


Technically none of this is out of the rules or against the Canon. The face made the proper rolls and aquired everything. The team's medic did all the surgury himself in his shop. The Weapon Specialist instructs them in combat. The stealth adept teaches the art of being a supafly ninja boy.

Now the problem is. They have an army. I'm not the type of GM to just slap it out of thier hands after they put that much work and yen into it, but I do need some advice on how to cope with it.

Plus I thought the overall idea was totally brilliant and would like to go with it a bit.

[BumsofTacoma]

Steroids do wonders on the heart man. Heart attacks around the house!

Well, errr, damn man, your players are evil. Just let themuse em, wait for them to make a mistake. Smart links and spurs dont save you from all that much.

[Grey]

Where do they live? Maybe some Metahuman Rights Activists get work of it and firebomb the house in responce. Could be a few things that happen if word gets around of what they are doing.

Are there any magic users? Something like this really goes starts to fall into the realm of going toxic.

[kevyn668]

I don't want to go against the heart of this thread but, it sounds like a really good idea on thier part. Yeah, its immoral but who cares? I think you should let 'em roll w/ it. What do they have in mind? You could go check out the threads on "Do Runners Plan Thier Own Runs".

[Kagetenshi]

Think about how many runs are helped by having an army. Not very many. I really think that unless these runners go and become mercs, they're going to be suffering a net financial loss from this.

~J

[Req]

Yeah, but it RULES. It's all about the personal army of brainwashed psychopaths. And they can start a bunraku parlor if they need help paying the bills.

[Reaver]

Wow, they have a gang. Sounds like its time for rival gangs to make things difficult for them. Maybe the organized crime in the area feels thier territory is being threatend. The meta-human rights group was a good idea too. Make it known that there are lots of fish in the pond bigger than they are. :D

[Zazen]

I dunno, this sounds kind of cool. It just forces you to change the game. Now they're sort of like cult leaders, not normal shadowrunners. Change the nature of the challenges to reflect that.

Perhaps an investigator of some kind starts snooping around. It could be a PI hired by relatives to track down one of the slaves, a spook trying to avoid another Waco, or someone gathering info for a gang or crime family that runs the area. Where it goes from there is up to you (maybe the family hires a shadowrunning team to get their Billy Boy back, maybe the feds set themselves up outside asking them to lay off the kool-aid, maybe they buy off or kill the investigator, whatever).

Maybe one of the personafix chips is defective, and the person it was fitted for realizes it quickly. This particular student seems much more gifted than the others, eager to learn and naturally good at the subject of her lessons. If the players have been taking any "liberties" with the female elves, then I vote for one of them. Such a person could become a pretty cool (and deranged) recurring NPC.

If one of these things gets captured by a corp or LS, they'll find the dedicated chipjack and remove the chip. After that they've probably got someone quite willing to talk at length about who just hit their facility.


Oh yeah, and make sure they're paying lifestyle costs for all of these new mouths to feed :)

[Spookymonster]

If those people had families, I bet they'd be real pissed if they found out what was done to them. They might even pool together enough money to, say, hire a team of Shadowrunners to liberate their kin.

[Adarael]

Well, I like the idea... BUT.

But I don't think this army of vat-grown, VR trainer built killers would stand even half a chance against the real opposition Shadowrunners face. Why? No actual experience. They've never shot someone. They've never seen their friends get gunned down by corpsec. Essentially, they're in it because someone they respect and serve told them to. That's fine and dandy, but they're going to be up the creek when it comes down to the wire, because they've got chip learnin' out the wang, but they've never had to improvise.

Not to mention, what happens when the persona fix chips start causing aberrations in behavior? OBsessive-compulsive disorders? The budgeting of the 'masters' time so that they won't be exposed to any 'undesireables' - all for the masters' own good, of course!

In general, I'd probably also rule that the clones don't have a Karma pool. I know karma is supposed to be tied to your aura and mystical energy and all that, but I also regard it in part as your will to live - your zanshin under fire, and ability to pull out all the stops to get the job done. And brainwashed clone doesn't say any of that to me. Though it is really cool to have a gang. <G>

Hey. I like that idea. You could go places with that - especially if one of the clone's chips started malfunctioning, and it started to plot on how to get free.

[RedmondLarry]

[Velocity]

I gotta agree with the last few posts: this shows some amazing creativity (aside from the fact that female elves are necessarily super-stealthy ninjas--stereotype much?), hustle and teamwork. If you want to monkeywrench it, just look at it this way: if NPCs were doing this, it'd be the setup for a perfect run.

Someone, somewhere could easily hire some runners (rated, say Equal and Professional) to investigate these kidnappings.

[Lilt]

Personally I think it was a great idea on the part of your group, and I wouldn't really screw them over about it unless it seriously was a problem.

If you really feel that you musty screw them over about it somehow: Who programmed the Personafix chips? Did they think to confirm all of the chips themselves? If you can: Have one of the slaves only have apparent loyalty to the group, or make it a kind of dual-personafix chip and have the character start sending-out information about the runners their other masters (works best with one of the stealth types).

[Jason Farlander]

Yeah... I find myself agreeing with the "this is a reasonably good, creative idea, and such things should be encouraged" croud. It's been a while since I've had a group that was sufficiently dedicated as to plot about the game with each other in their spare time, so you should consider yourself lucky.

[Diesel]

Thanks for the idea, my players are going on a run like this now. To liberate slaves, not acquire them. I hope... :D

[Slamm-O]

am i the only one taht thinks that this is some gayass shit? i missed the thread on buying people but i am realatively sure it is illegal in seattle (and most other places) so who are you buying them from? how are you avoiding the legal problems ? (fed. raids) i assume part of the answer to this would be hiding in the barrens, well wont the locals think that you are a bunch of weird hoodoos or somesuch and flush you out?

[Jason Farlander]

[Diesel]

I don't think many people in the barrens [i]aren't[i] a bunch of weird hoodoos.

[BumsofTacoma]

This is really interesting to read. It does seem that your group really thought this through.

My origional post was in the opinion that you saw this as a problem. Bad reading on my part sorry.

Hell, let em roll with it.

[Zazen]

[Tanka]

[Diesel]

Is that really any spell? Do I need to go get a permit for treat, or oxygenate or stuff like that?

[Zazen]

Yup.

[Siege]

Dedicated chipjacks might be a good idea for BTL chips, autoinjectors and biomonitors with radio activation.

Knowledge links could be useful for things like: cooking, secretary and cleaning for useful urban camoflauge. :grinbig:

-Siege

[Fortune]